Giant Robot wins season opener

West Los Angeles (BT)

Stoner Park was the scene where familiar foes faced off for the season opener as Giant Robot routed The Nortons to the score of 24-8 in six innings. Mainstays at the C level on Thursday nights The Nortons came equipped with a new service pack of players that didn’t prove too effective that night. The Robot offense got on the board early when Second Baseman Sean Caster belted a two run homer in the opening frame.

“I put the midget in the cupboard,” said Caster regarding his four bagger, who managed to go 3-for-4 with 6 base knocks despite seeing a terrible array of pitches.

The Nortons came back to equalize on the bottom half of the same inning stringing together 5 hits but left the bases loaded. Despite matching the offense output of the Robots in the 1st inning this was the closest the Nortons got for the rest of the game.

The GR batters showed a good amount of patience taking many walks from the wild Nortons hurler and cashed them in during the 2nd inning with 5 runs and 3rd inning with an explosion of 8 runs that was highlighted by shortstop Michael Idemoto’s 2-run shot.

“That ball was hit to another IP address,” remarked Catcher Brian Tse on the Idemoto bomb..

Giant Robot Pitcher Paul Kim had an effective start on the mound surrendering 2 earned runs and striking out 3 Nortons batters. Despite a few miscues on the field the Robot defense kept the Nortons in check for most of the game.

“The defense was good, but we weren’t really tested. We’ll be fine,” said Idemoto, who went 4-for-5 for the night.

The highlight of the night came in the 2nd inning where manger and third baseman Bill Poon smoked a drive past the left center fielder for a home run that had the robot bench and fans in attendance standing up and cheering.

“It was the best seeing Bill make that home run right when we pulled up in the parking lot,” added fan in attendance Hunter Minami.

On the verge of falling prey to the mercy rule in the 5th inning the Nortons capitalized on a few robot fielding mistakes to extend the game a little longer but it only resulted in stat padding for the robot offense.

“Prior to the game, I just wanted us to win to get off on a good start, to show Nortons that we were still the team to beat. I thought we stayed focused and in turn we did well,” said manager Poon, who is just 17 RBIs short of reaching a bonus in his incentive clause.

Next up for the Robots is the Century Park All Stars at Penmar Park with a 9 pm PST start.

“Were happy to get start off the season with a win,” said First Baseman Jason Kato. “We just need to go out next week and play hard with intensity. No Mercy!”